[Peace-discuss] Prospects for US' chief client

[C. G. Estabrook]

*In Israel, a Tsunami Warning*
Thursday 7 July 2011
Noam Chomsky

In May, in a closed meeting of many of Israel's business leaders, Idan Ofer, a 
holding-company magnate, warned, "We are quickly turning into South Africa. The 
economic blow of sanctions will be felt by every family in Israel."

The business leaders' particular concern was the U.N. General Assembly session 
this September, where the Palestinian Authority is planning to call for 
recognition of a Palestinian state.

Dan Gillerman, Israel's former ambassador to the United Nations, warned 
participants that "the morning after the anticipated announcement of recognition 
of a Palestinian state, a painful and dramatic process of Southafricanization 
will begin" -- meaning that Israel would become a pariah state, subject to 
international sanctions.

In this and subsequent meetings, the oligarchs urged the government to initiate 
efforts modeled on the Saudi (Arab League) proposals and the unofficial Geneva 
Accord of 2003, in which high-level Palestinian and Israeli negotiators detailed 
a two-state settlement that was welcomed by most of the world, dismissed by 
Israel and ignored by Washington.

In March, Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned of the prospective U.N. 
action as a "tsunami." The fear is that the world will condemn Israel not only 
for violating international law but also for carrying out its criminal acts in 
an occupied state recognized by the U.N.

The U.S. and Israel are waging intensive diplomatic campaigns to head off the 
tsunami. If they fail, recognition of a Palestinian state is likely.

More than 100 states already recognize Palestine. The United Kingdom, France and 
other European nations have upgraded the Palestine General Delegation to 
"diplomatic missions and embassies -- a status normally reserved only for 
states," Victor Kattan observes in the American Journal of International Law.

Palestine has also been admitted to U.N. organizations apart from UNESCO and the 
World Health Organization, which have avoided the issue for fear of U.S. 
defunding -- no idle threat.

In June the U.S. Senate passed a resolution threatening to suspend aid for the 
Palestine Authority if it persists with its U.N. initiative. Susan Rice, U.S. 
ambassador to the U.N., warned that there was "no greater threat" to U.S. 
funding of the U.N. "than the prospect of Palestinian statehood being endorsed 
by member states," The (London) Daily Telegraph reports. Israel's new U.N. 
Ambassador, Ron Prosor, informed the Israeli press that U.N. recognition "would 
lead to violence and war."

The U.N. would presumably recognize Palestine in the internationally accepted 
borders, including the Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza. The heights were 
annexed by Israel in December 1981, in violation of U.N. Security Council orders.

In the West Bank, the settlements and acts to support them are clearly in 
violation of international law, as affirmed by the World Court and the Security 
Council.

In February 2006, the U.S. and Israel imposed a siege in Gaza after the "wrong 
side" -- Hamas -- won elections in Palestine, recognized as free and fair. The 
siege became much harsher in June 2007 after the failure of a U.S.-backed 
military coup to overthrow the elected government.

In June 2010, the siege of Gaza was condemned by the International Committee of 
the Red Cross -- which rarely issues such reports -- as "collective punishment 
imposed in clear violation" of international humanitarian law. The BBC reported 
that the ICRC "paints a bleak picture of conditions in Gaza: hospitals short of 
equipment, power cuts lasting hours each day, drinking water unfit for 
consumption," and the population of course imprisoned.

The criminal siege extends the U.S.-Israeli policy since 1991 of separating Gaza 
from the West Bank, thus ensuring that any eventual Palestinian state would be 
effectively contained within hostile powers -- Israel and the Jordanian 
dictatorship. The Oslo Accords, signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation 
Organization in 1993, proscribe separating Gaza from the West Bank.

A more immediate threat facing U.S.-Israeli rejectionism is the Freedom Flotilla 
that seeks to challenge the blockade of Gaza by bringing letters and 
humanitarian aid. In May 2010, the last such attempt led to an attack by Israeli 
commandoes in international waters -- a major crime in itself -- in which nine 
passengers were killed, actions bitterly condemned outside the U.S.

In Israel, most people convinced themselves that the commandoes were the 
innocent victims, attacked by passengers, another sign of the self-destructive 
irrationality sweeping the society.

Today the U.S. and Israel are vigorously seeking to block the flotilla. U.S. 
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton virtually authorized violence, stating that 
"Israelis have the right to defend themselves" if flotillas "try to provoke 
action by entering into Israeli waters" -- that is, the territorial waters of 
Gaza, as if Gaza belonged to Israel.

Greece agreed to prevent the boats from leaving (that is, those boats not 
already sabotaged) -- though, unlike Clinton, Greece referred rightly to "the 
maritime area of Gaza."

In January 2009, Greece had distinguished itself by refusing to permit U.S. arms 
to be shipped to Israel from Greek ports during the vicious U.S.-Israeli assault 
in Gaza. No longer an independent country in its current financial duress, 
Greece evidently cannot risk such unusual integrity.

Asked whether the flotilla is a "provocation," Chris Gunness, the spokesperson 
for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the major aid agency for Gaza, described 
the situation as desperate: "If there were no humanitarian crisis, if there 
weren't a crisis in almost every aspect of life in Gaza there would be no need 
for the flotilla â(euro) [ 95 percent of all water in Gaza is undrinkable, 40 
percent of all disease is water-borne ... 45.2 percent of the labor force is 
unemployed, 80 percent aid dependency, a tripling of the abject poor since the 
start of the blockade. Let's get rid of this blockade and there would be no need 
for a flotilla."

Diplomatic initiatives such as the Palestinian state strategy, and nonviolent 
actions generally, threaten those who hold a virtual monopoly on violence. The 
U.S. and Israel are trying to sustain indefensible positions: the occupation and 
its subversion of the overwhelming, long-standing consensus on a diplomatic 
settlement.
/
Noam Chomsky's most recent book, with co-author Ilan Pappe, is ''Gaza in 
Crisis.`` Chomsky is emeritus professor of linguistics and philosophy at the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass./
/
<http://www.truth-out.org/israel-tsunami-warning/1310042953>/

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